Investigating Households’ Environmental Perceptions and Willingness-to-Pay for Improved Waste Treatment Service (WTP4WTS) in Vietnam

Waste pollution represents an increasingly serious problem affecting the health and well-being of people living in many developing countries. Many studies have examined and recommended waste-reducing solutions, yet environmental culture-based measures remain understudied. This study employs a novel approach that integrates the Culture Tower with the Contingent Valuation Method and a Bayesian model (CVBM) to explore and advance households’ environmental culture associated with waste management. Specifically, descriptive statistics capture respondents’ environmental perceptions and literacy, while the Bayesian model and CVM identify the determinants of households’ willingness to pay (WTP) and estimate WTP for waste treatment service (WTP4WTS), respectively. We found that despite the observed reduction in local waste pollution over time, respondents maintain a persistent concern regarding this issue. Over 13% of the households surveyed expressed dissatisfaction with waste treatment services (WTS), contrasting with nearly 50% of households that reported a neutral perspective. We also found that a significant majority (79.26%) of respondents were willing to pay for WTS, with an average WTP of 60,200 VND (US$2.32) per month. Importantly, the primary predictors of WTP4WTS were found to be the desire for improved waste services, current perceived waste pollution, and the belief that pollution has worsened over time. This study makes three key contributions. First, it develops an integrated CVBM framework linking environmental culture with economic valuation, thereby strengthening the micro-behavioral foundations of green economy research. Second, it advances the circular economy literature by identifying household engagement and willingness to pay as critical drivers of sustainable waste-financing and resource-loop closure. Third, it provides empirical evidence to inform and refine the implementation of Vietnam’s revised Law on Environmental Protection (2020), particularly in operationalizing the “polluter pays” principle, promoting waste classification at source, and designing socially acceptable environmental financing mechanisms.